1,141 research outputs found

    A comparative, iconographic study of early-modern, religious emblems

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    Although scholarly interest in the field of emblematics has increased greatly over the last decade, there is still much to be done, particularly in the area of religious emblems. The emblem form has been considered from the perspective of individual author, geographical factors and theological background but there have been few comparative studies with respect to religious emblems. This study will compare Protestant and Catholic emblems produced during the Reformation and Counter- Reformation, drawing on specific examples from, in particular, France, but also Germany and England. Emblems played a huge role in early-modern life. They expressed contemporary thought and also became part of the physical environment, being etched into stone, or wood, or sewn into cloth as decoration. In a period of such political, civil, and religious unrest, it would, therefore, seem likely that the Catholic and Protestant emblem would be quite distinct types either expressing theologically opposed notions, or manipulating the text/image relationship in quite different ways. Understanding how these emblems functioned, therefore, necessitates close reading, indeed, reading in the way the emblems were intended to be read. This study, therefore, will address the question of differences through detailed analysis of specific examples. This study begins with an introduction which gives a brief history of emblem literature and a review of relevant secondary material. Key terms and definitions regarding emblems are also explained here. This chapter also introduces the authors of the emblems analysed in later chapters. The first part of this thesis examines the emblem form in the wider context of the Reformation. From an initial overview of some of the key issues of the Reformation in chapter one, chapters two and three move on to analyse closely a wide corpus of Catholic and Protestant emblems. In these chapters the emblem is broken down into its component parts of verse and picture. Chapter two examines the religious emblem from the perspective of motif while chapter three approaches the emblem from a thematic angle. The second part of this study adopts a different approach presenting case studies of three authors. Chapter four explores the importance of the visual element in the emblems of Protestant author Rollenhagen. Chapter five investigates the Jesuit influences which shape the emblems of Catholic Berthod. While chapters four and five offer an insight into the work of prototypical Protestant and Catholic authors chapter six demonstrates the successful fusion of both Protestant and Catholic influences in the emblems of Wither. Indeed, this study suggests that the differences between Protestant and Catholic at this time are largely exaggerated with respect to emblems. Protestant and Catholic emblems are not, this study maintains, in essence all that different. It argues that, in fact, Protestant and Catholic emblems were often very close in terms of content and that the real difference is in the way they manipulate the text/image relationship

    Preface

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    Thiis is the preface introducing the volum

    Identity and icons: conflict and consequences surrounding the University of North Dakota\u27s Fighting Sioux name and logo

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    Controversy surrounds the University of North Dakota\u27s (UND) logo and nickname, The Fighting Sioux, generating a conflict with the neighboring American Indian tribe [Native American], the Standing Rock Sioux, dating back to the 1960\u27s (Phillips and Rice 2010:511). Previous research done on this topic left a large discrepancy regarding the concept of cultural identity attached to the conflict, developments that have taken placed since 2005, and more recent developments. The question I examine is why this issue incorporates such differing opinions. I examined the concept that the root of this controversy lies within cultural identities which are linked to the same idea, yet with diametrically opposed interpretations applied to it. I believe this issue is neither exclusively about ignorance nor intentional ethnic discrimination but about concepts grounded in identity, history, politics, financial motivations, and institutional difference

    Bureaucracy: a Love Story

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    Bureaucracy usually only becomes visible when it stops working—when a system fails, when an event gets off schedule, when someone points to a problem or glitch in a carefully calibrated workflow. But Bureaucracy: A Love Story draws together research done by scholars and students in the Special Collections at the University of North Texas to illuminate how bureaucracy structures our contemporary lives across a range of domains. People have navigated bureaucracy for centuries, by creating and utilizing various literary and rhetorical forms—from indexes to alphabetization to diagrams to blanks—that made it possible to efficiently process large amounts of information. Contemporary bureaucracy is likewise concerned with how to collect and store information, to circulate it efficiently, and to allow for easy access. We are interested both in the conventional definition of bureaucracy as a form of ordering and control connected to institutions and the state, but we also want to uncover how people interacted—often in creative ways—with the material forms of bureaucracy

    Towards a history of design in Canadian children's illustrated books

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    This paper places the development of design in Canadian children's illustrated books within the broader history of graphic design and general book design in Canada. The influence of Walter Crane and William Morris's Arts and Crafts movement in the nineteenth century had a long period of influence on Canadian book design. In the mid-twentieth century, the International Style held sway. Throughout the 1950s and into the 1970s, a generation of book designers converged with the emergence of specialist publishing for children. Notable children's book designers such as Frank Newfeld, publishers such as William Toye, Patsy Aldana, and May Cutler, and designer Michael Solomon moved illustrated children's book design into innovative territory. The paper considers the question of whether there is an identifiable Canadian design style in picture books and examines the house styles of seminal publishers.Peer reviewedfinal article publishe

    Teacher gesture in a post-secondary English as a second language classroom: A sociocultural approach

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    Vygotsky (1978) uses the example of gesture in a child, stating that finger pointing represents an interpersonal relationship, and only after this cultural form is internalized can an intrapersonal relationship develop. Language learning must be viewed in the context of social interaction, and the gesture of others, specifically language instructors toward their students, is a form of social interaction worthy of attention. Newman and Holzman (1993) discuss the idea of performance as a mode of semiotic mediation related to meaning making. Daniels, Cole, and Wertsch (2007) also discuss the concept of performance, stating that gestures are tools which assist performance. Wells (1999) adds performance to Vygotsky’s modes of semiotic mediation when discussing learning and teaching within the ZPD, considering these sources of assistance to learners in the ZPD. This study examined the discourse and corresponding gestures used in the classroom by one female instructor and her students in a university ESL pronunciation course. Specifically, the observations are of the teacher in interaction with students concerning the subject matter. The instructor and students were video recorded for the first five weeks of an eight-week course, meeting twice per week for one hour. The findings are discussed in relation to the instructor’s embodied practices. The data revealed that the instructor gestured and mimetically illustrated in order to concretize the language. In addition, her performance included nearly constant instantiations of language in terms of gesture. The gestures observed are organized into the different linguistic categories of grammar, pronunciation, and lexis. In addition, gestures related to classroom management are described. This organization reinforces the notion that the instructor was trying to concretize the language and codify it. Gestures in this study are considered in relation to pedagogy. Therefore, not only the gesture types, but also the functions, are discussed
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